Exercising is well known as a basic need for maintaining a healthy life. A recent trend in fitness is known as functional training. This type of training allows an individual to grasp one or more handles of an exercise machine and press or pull in a motion defined by the user. This motion can reproduce sport specific movements of an athlete or reproduce everyday movements of an individual. User defined movements with resistance will engage numerous stabilizer and major muscles and help an individual achieve total body strength conditioning and overall better health.
One type of exercise machine used to perform functional training is an adjustable cable column. Typically, an adjustable cable column has a cable end with a handle assembly attached which can be pressed or pulled by a user. The cable end exits a swivel pulley assembly that is pivotally attached to a sleeve. This sleeve is linearly adjustable along a column enabling a user to engage a handle assembly at different starting positions for different exercises. The pivotally attached swivel pulley on the linearly adjustable sleeve allows the handle assembly to be pressed or pulled in multiple planes thus accommodating different sized users with different flexibilities and different training goals.
Typically, a weight stack provides the resistance for these adjustable cable columns. In order for the cable to maintain constant tension during the linear adjustment of a cable end along with a handle assembly, the cable is formed into a loop wherein each end of the cable is directed towards the linearly adjustable sleeve from opposite directions. One end of the cable is routed over at least one pulley on a swivel pulley assembly which is pivotally attached to a sleeve as previously described. The other end of the cable is also either tied into the same linearly adjustable sleeve or either routed over a second swivel pulley assembly which is pivotally attached to the same linearly adjustable sleeve. This same cable is also routed around one or two pulleys on top of the weight stack. When one or both ends of the cable assembly is pressed or pulled, the closed loop shortens, therefore lifting the selected weights in the weight stack and therefore providing resistance to the user.
The cable end of some adjustable cable columns are interconnected with the weight stack wherein a 4 to 1 mechanical advantage is provided to the user when one cable end is pressed or pulled. For example, if the adjustable cable column has a 200 lb weight stack and all 200 lbs are selected, pressing or pulling one cable end will provide 50 lbs of resistance. This is an advantage because the cable end can be pressed or pulled a long distance before the top of the weight stack will run out of upward travel distance. This allows the user to perform many functional training exercises that require long distance pressing or pulling and light weight resistance. This is a disadvantage if the user wants to perform strength training exercises that require shorter distance pressing or pulling and heavier weight resistance. An adjustable cable column could be made with a heavier weight stack such as 400 lbs but this would greatly increase the cost of the exercise machine.
The cable end of some adjustable cable columns are interconnected with the weight stack wherein a 2 to 1 mechanical advantage is provided to the user when one cable end is pressed or pulled. For example, if the adjustable cable column has a 200 lb weight stack and all 200 lbs are selected, pressing or pulling one cable end will provide 100 lbs of resistance. This 2 to 1 mechanical advantage does not allow as much cable end travel as the 4 to 1 mechanical advantage does because of the exercise machine height restrictions of the upward travel of the weight stack. The 2 to 1 ratio is an advantage if the user wants to perform strength training exercises that require shorter distance pressing or pulling and heavier weight resistance. The 2 to 1 ratio is a disadvantage if the user wants to perform some functional training exercises that require long distance pressing or pulling and light weight resistance.
Two adjustable cable columns can be combined into one exercise apparatus known as a cable crossover wherein the two columns are spaced apart from one another and the user can grasp two separate handle assemblies on two separate columns. This cable crossover typically has one or two weight stacks to provide resistance.
Having a separate adjustable cable column and/or cable crossover for lighter weight functional training and a separate adjustable cable column and/or cable crossover for heavier weight strength training would be to costly and require too much room to house the equipment. Also, manufacturing an exercise machine that is too tall to allow more cable travel is not practical because of height restrictions. Thus, there is a need for an exercise machine with linearly adjustable handle assemblies that will provide alternate resistance ratios for light weight functional training and heavier weight strength training.